


On Behalf of the, Gelth? Was it? Yeah the Gelth

by emilyisfictional



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Fluff, Gelth (but not really), Post-Darillium, Post-Library, Shenanigans, Slitheen, Space Wives, Vortex Manipulator Malfunction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22048393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyisfictional/pseuds/emilyisfictional
Summary: “Oh Rose, dear, dinner should always be dangerous,” River whispered, “and just a little bit sexy.”“Professor, this isn’t the time for joking around! Vasillaraxian alcohol is poisonous to the Slitheen!”
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Kudos: 94





	On Behalf of the, Gelth? Was it? Yeah the Gelth

**Author's Note:**

> Hi fam! This is more of a character study for me to find 13’s voice and I don’t actually think it’s that good (I may even rewrite it someday) but I just wanted to try taking a stab at her voice. By the end of the story I think I had it figured out a bit more. I started this fic before I started writing my current WIP (and it actually bothers me so much that I’m posting this one before my current!) and now that my current is almost done I’m finishing this one off! My current WIP is called “Guavas are Poisonous to Time Lords” and is an 11/River which is a pairing I’m very comfortable with! It should be up this week! And hopefully after writing this drabble I’ll be more comfortable with writing Space Wives!! (Adding Rose was purely for my own enjoyment!)

“Oh Rose, dear, dinner should always be dangerous,” River whispered, “and just a little bit sexy.”

“Professor, this isn’t the time for joking around! Vasillaraxian alcohol is poisonous to the Slitheen!”

“Well, it’s not poisonous for humans.”

“We also don’t know which goblet you poured it into,” Rose reminded her. 

“Hush now,” River calmed her on edge companion. “They don’t know we poured anything in.”

“We?” Rose asked incredulously. 

River sighed, “ _ I _ poured anything in.”

“Don’t you suppose, if one of them died, they’ll suspect us?”

“Professor River Song and Rose Tyler,” the Slitheen butler clicked while staring into their souls with his giant beady eyes. “We will have one more guest joining us. She has just landed and will be arriving shortly.” 

“Fantastic,” Rose muttered and sat back defiantly. 

She hadn’t even wanted to go to Raxicoricofallopatorious, she had asked the Professor if they could go to Space Florida again or someplace tropical, but you didn’t argue with Professor-sometimes-Doctor-but-mainly-Professor River Song, you only agreed and prayed you didn’t die in the process. 

River took Rose’s hand and gave it a platonic squeeze. “You worry too much, you’re going to get wrinkles.” She said poking between Rose’s eyebrows. “Besides I already took care of it.”

Rose gave the Professor a curious glance, “what do you mean you took care of it?”

“I called someone who could save negotiations even if every Slitheen at this table was poisoned.”

“And who might that be.”

A metal door on the other side of the ship’s dining hall slid open with a clunk and through walked a woman with short dishevelled blonde hair, a gray coat and a confused look on her face. 

She looked at River, with the strangest look on her face. As if she hadn’t seen her in years.

“Hello, Sweetie.”

“Professor, who’s this?” Rose asked.

“That’s a very good question,” River winked.

The Doctor’s eyes widened in disbelief as the dawning realization of just who sat in front of her sank in fully. “What?”   
“I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met yet,” Rose said nicely.

The Doctor laid her eyes on Rose Tyler for the first time in over a thousand years. She then looked at her wife whom she hadn’t seen since Darillium. And then back at Rose as if trying to figure out how this could have possibly happened. “What?!”

“Sweetie, do you happen know my companion here?”

The Doctor’s eyes bulged. “What?!”

\--

She sat across from the two blondes with Florax at the head and a few other Slitheen with names too difficult to pronounce surrounding them. 

Well, they weren’t currently surrounding them. Florax and his advisors had left once they had realized who River’s mystery guess was in an attempt to come up with a plan that would probably end in some sort of death and destruction.

But they didn’t say that.

River took a long sip from her champagne flute and smiled at her wife, “cat got your tongue?”

The Doctor scrunched her face up and said, “I’m sorry I just don’t understand, how can you both be here?” The Doctor directed her next question to River, “how did you even recognize me? I look a little different than I did on,”

_ Darillium. _

But she didn’t say anything, as she didn’t know where she was in River’s timestream.

Or Rose’s for that matter.

Rose Tyler.

A Rose by any other name would be as sweet as Rose Tyler. As sweet as a flower. If the soil could only provide nutrients to one it would be Rose Tyler.

(She had indeed tried to but it almost killed Rose so the tall Doctor with the funny hair had to give her a talking to).

God she couldn’t even begin to think of Rose Tyler.

Rose didn’t seem to recognize her, she only turned to River and said: “hey Prof, do you think they have a bathroom on this ship somewhere.”

River smiled at her little protege, “I don’t know. But I definitely think you should go wreak some havoc while Mummy and Daddy, well,” River paused. “Mummy and Mummy have a little chat.”

Rose only grinned and ran out the door, the Doctor was frightened.

For the Slitheen.

River, who usually had a sharp-witted exterior around other people, always softened when she and the Doctor were alone. Her features relaxed, which was odd and beautiful and everything as she stood and drifted cautiously towards the Doctor “Is this the first time you’ve seen me since Darillium?”

“You’ve done Darillium?” The Doctor asked equally softly.

River stood to take her wife’s hand. “Sweetie, I’ve done the Library.”

_ The Library. _

The Doctor felt herself tearing up, she had no control over it. 

River’s eyebrows furrowed. Wiping the tears from her wife’s eyes. The Doctor close her eyes as she felt the soft touch. “How long has it been for you since. . .”

“A long time.” The Doctor said cutting her off before she could even think. “A very long time.” Her smile slowly scrunched in confusion. “How did you recognize me, I’m not exactly an angry old scotsmen anymore.”

River only chuckled, “Well let’s just say, I’m sorry in advance for what’s going to happen.”

“What's going to happen?”

River gave he a knowing smile and whispered “spoilers.” 

The Doctor hadn’t realised how much she missed hearing that word. She studied her wife’s face for any hint of what was to come. But River only quirked an eyebrow and bit her lip.

The Doctor couldn’t begin to imagine what sort of things she and River would get up to the first time she met her in that body.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

“And I’m glad you got the message,” River smiled. “I didn’t think you’d get here in time.”

“My bad, bad girl what trouble have you got for me this time.”

River smiled broadly, and though ‘spoilers’ again was implied, she kissed her wife. 

And the Doctor melted. 

A door opened and Rose came tumbling back in. A suspicious smile on her face. River parted from her wife and smiled at Rose fondly. “My young Padawan what troubles have you caused this time?”

“That’s the Doctor in’nit?” Rose asked her eyes wide. “You’re the Doctor!” 

She (she being said Doctor) knew that this was either going to be very awkward and very terrible. Things were seldom easy in her life. 

“I am, do you know me?”

“Only from the stories the Prof has told me. But she never told me you knew me! Cause you recognized me yeah? When you walked in.”

“Perceptive,” River whispered to her wife. 

“But I didn’t recognize you. So when do we meet?” Rose asked as she sat across from the two.    
The Doctor had no idea what was going on. Rose has never talked about time-space adventures before in fact that was part of what drew the Doctor to her in the first place 

“Well,” the Doctor murmured shaking her head. “That’s a bit of a complicated answer. What year did River pluck you from?” 

“2003.”

“Oh god,” the Doctor leaned back in her chair. ”She’s a teenager River!”

River waved her off. “I didn’t pluck her in  _ that  _ sense Sweetie!” The Doctor looked at her scandalized. River only sighed. “My vortex manipulator was damaged so I was looking for someone to fix it. I knew that you crossed Jack Harkness’s timeline around the time you met Rose so I-.

“We met Jack in 1941.” The Doctor interrupted. 

“I was barely a century off! Like I said, damaged! Anyway I realised you hadn’t met Rose yet so I decided to take her for a test drive.” River turned to Rose, “you’ve been lovely dear.”

“I’ll pretend that was a compliment.” 

“It was,” River replied defensively. 

“River,” the Doctor whispered. “If you’ve done Darillium then, then I’ve told you who Rose Tyler was. What she meant to me.”

River took the Doctor’s hand, “I know. But don’t worry. I was planning on giving her a some omit powder after dinner tonight. She’d never remember any of this and then your ninth regeneration can meet her and everything is fine.”

“What was that about omit powder.” Rose asked, from the other side of the table.

“Nothing you need to worry about Sweetie,” River smiled as she straightened. 

The door opened and three slimy members of the slitheen came waddling in.

“Ladies,” the Doctor whispered. “You never exactly mentioned what exactly it was we were negotiating here.”

“Well, uh.” Rose stuttered as the Slitheen took their seats. “On behalf of the, gelth, was it? Yeah the gelth.”

” We’re brokering a treaty so the gelth of 1349 can return home safely through slitheen territory.

“Yeah,” Rose leaned closer. “‘Cept someone may have poisoned their leader.”

“Alright, in hindsight.” River murmured. “That was a bad idea.”

The Doctor rubbed her temples. “And you’ve called me to smooth things over if it all goes south.”

Rose smiled apologetically. River beamed.

“All right then.” The Doctor cracked her knuckles (and immediately regretted it cause that actually hurts!) “Let's get this party started.” She looked over at River who tried to frown at her wife’s word choice but couldn’t hold back a fiendish laugh.”

Rose shook her head, barely able to keep a straight face. “You two are terrible,” she sighed, hoping that the Doctor was as good as gettingout of messes as the Professor thought she was. Especially as she watched Florax, the head of the Slitheen family take a sip of his crystalline wine and slump over as if he has been poisoned which granted,

He had been. 

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
